Off the back of two losses, NYC Newcastle Knights coach Todd Lowrie admits he was relieved to get the win against the Wests Tigers on Sunday.
Now back into the top four, Lowrie says that despite getting the result in the end, the match was a mixed bag.
“We started well which was really good, but then we lost our way a bit towards the middle of the game which allowed them to come back into it,” Lowrie maintained.
“But then we hung on enough to be able to kick away at the end and we got there luckily.
“The Tigers have for some reason always seemed to play well against us over the last few years.
“It was good to get the win because we have had a couple of losses and we needed that win.”
The NYC coach praised the attacking work of his backs with a career first hat-trick from centre Heath Gibbs and a double from winger Mitch Andrews.
“They were some good tries and most of them were individual efforts,” said Lowrie.
“Gibbsey (Heath Gibbs) did some good things on his own and Mitch (Andrews) ran the length to put us in front again.”
Lowrie also applauded his side’s defensive efforts.
“Our defence in the first 15 to 20 minutes was great,” he commented.
“They had a lot of ball down our end and we actually didn’t leak any points at all which was really pleasing.
“They looked really good early in the game but the challenge is to do that for the whole period of the game.”
The Under 20s side are back on the road this weekend to take on a 14th placed Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Despite their standing, Lowrie knows from their last performance, they’ll be eager to get on a roll.
“They had a win this week, they played a pretty good team and they beat them so they’ll be full of confidence and it will be another tough one for us,” Lowrie said.
